What is the Partnership for the 21st Century?

It is impossible to discuss the implementation of technology into the classroom without mentioning the Partnership for 21st Century Skills. If you haven't already done so, check out their web site at http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/ . This web site is dedicated to the implemention of certain skills into education. It is a partnership of businesses, community, education and policy leaders to ensure students emerge from our schools with the skills needed (http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/, n.d.). Please see the web site for their list of necessary skills.

Regardless of your opinion, this web site is extremely thorough. Their goal is to increase the knowledge of our students in various areas, which I find encouraging. They provide a solid explanation of their goals and the means of achieving them. The web site design is impressive and supports their message that through technology we have the means of achieving a school environment that is more similar to the workplace, thus better preparing our students.

When examining the site, look at who the partners are. I was somewhat surprised, although I'm unsure why, to find most of their partners to be technology based businesses. To me this decreased their validity because it seemed like the cause may have ulterior motives. To be fair, there were also many education based partners as well, but one would expect that.

To a certain extent I disagree with the expectation that public schools be held responsible for ensuring that all students acquire the six key elements that the Partnership deems important. Some of the 21st century content includes financial and economic literacy which I do not feel is pertinent at all age levels. In addition, another key element is information and media literacy skills. This is not something that has evolved through the years. As a country, we have been competitive without acquiring this skill during high school. Typically this skill is learned with life experience. Why has that changed?

There are many educational implications for students of today and teachers. Teachers must expand their methods of instruction to include the use of technology whenever possible. The more students are exposed to technology, the more prepared they will be for the 21st century workplace. As an english teacher, I must emphasize skills such as leadership, accountability, adaptability, people skills and social responsibility which are all part of life skills. Although I do feel teachers currently do this in the classroom, it will need to be emphasized. Students will need to acquire the ability to use technology as a resource whenever possible.

The Partnership has a point when they say the key to a stronger U.S. economy is closing the gap between the knowledge students acquire in school and what they will need in the 21st century workplace (http://www.21stcenturyskills.org/, n.d.). We need to make this our focus if we expect our students to be competitive in a global job market.